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Morse Bluff, Nebraska

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1899 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Morse Bluff Township. It lies in ZIP code area 68648. It lies near Indian Peak. The Survey maps it on the North Bend quadrangle. 117 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,283 feet above sea level.

Morse Bluff within Saunders County

On record in Morse Bluff

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Morse Bluff fell from 135 to 117 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
2010135
2020117-18 (-13%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 11 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

16 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 16 fires within 5 miles of Morse Bluff between 2000 and 2020, burning about 78 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Equipment and vehicle use5
Debris and open burning5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Arson/incendiarism2
Railroad operations and maintenance1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
3 August 2007Arson/incendiarismunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
26 June 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
28 May 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
4 April 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
30 April 2019Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
17 April 2018Debris and open burning25 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
15 April 2020Equipment and vehicle use4.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
11 April 2020Debris and open burning1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Saunders County

Storms near this place

18 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Morse Bluff in 18 storm reports between 1999 and 2023: 9 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 2 flash flood. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2008Thunderstorm WindMorse Bluff1 hurtThunderstorm wind gusts were estimated by a NWS storm survey to have reached at least 70 mph, with embedded areas of 100 to 115 mph damage, in a 5 to 7 mile wide swath from west of Cedar Bluffs east and southeast to Highway 77 south of Fremont then through the Woodcliff area. The winds were accompanied by hail up to golf-ball size. The combination of wind and hail damaged crops west of Cedar Bluffs with trees and crops severely damaged from Cedar Bluffs to Woodcliff. A boyscout camp hosting about 1,000 people north of Cedar Bluffs was hit, seriously injuring one parent when a tree fell on him. Center pivots were also flipped from west of Cedar Bluffs east to the county line and some farm outbuilding damage was noted. A semi was flipped on Highway 77 a few miles south of Fremont. In the Woodcliff area the winds appeared to have been the strongest with several boats and boat lifts flipped and many homes sustained damage due to fallen trees. In addition to the tree and subsequent home damage by fallen trees, the wind whipped hail caused additional damage to siding, roofs and vehicles. Around 160 of the 440 homes in the Woodcliff area sustained damage. It was estimated that around 35,000 acres of crops were destroyed in Saunders county, with the plants virtually shredded to the ground in some areas.
April 1999Tornado (F1)Morse Bluff$250,000Of the 12 tornadoes reported over eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa on 4/08/99 this tornado probably caused damage to the most individual buildings. In Morse Bluff, damage was sustained to 10 buildings including one business that was nearly destroyed. This tornado then tracked north/northeast and crossed the Platte River just south of North Bend and then continued into Dodge county causing damage in North Bend before lifting.
August 2017Flash FloodMorse Bluff$50,000More than 5 inches of rain fell causing flooding of fields and creeks.
July 2008Flash FloodMorse Bluff$500Doppler radar estimated that around 3 inches of rain fell in a several hour or less period near Morse Bluff and this was backed by a public report of 3 inches in one hour. The heavy rain produced flooding which briefly closed a road near Highway 79 in town. Apparent damage was minimal.
May 2023HailMorse Bluff-Trained spotter reported 2-inch hail.
May 2023Thunderstorm WindMorse Bluff-Public reported via mPing of 1-inch tree limbs broken; shingles blown off.
August 2012HailMorse Bluff-Hail up to 1 inch in diameter covered the ground white a little southeast of Morse Bluff.
March 2009FloodMorse Bluff-An ice jam about 3/4 mile in length formed about 1 to 2 miles upstream of North Bend. The ice jam caused flooding along the Platte River in the vicinity of McGinns Lake area. The flooding affected just mainly agricultural lowlands in Saunders county with any damage minimal.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindMorse Bluff-Some large branches were knocked down by thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 mph.
February 2007FloodMorse Bluff-Ice jams and rising water due to snow melt on the Platte River caused water to flood and very large chunks of ice to be thrown up on the banks along the Platte River from north of Morse Bluff to southeast of Ashland. Water topped a dike in two places Thursday night 2/22-2/23/07 flooding a group of 4 cabins near Wann which is just upstream of the Elkhorn and Platte River confluence. Another cabin in the area received extensive damage as a local levee was topped. The Cedar Lakes area near Cedar Bluffs also experienced significant flooding due to a 3/4 mile long ice jam near that area. In addition to the homes and cabins that were flooded or surrounded by water, some county roads were closed in the area.
July 2006HailMorse Bluff-Hail up to 1 inch in diameter was accompanied by thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 50 mph.
June 1999Thunderstorm WindMorse Bluff-A few large limbs downed.
August 2018HailMorse Bluff-no account filed
May 2015HailMorse Bluff-no account filed
June 2014HailMorse Bluff-no account filed
June 2002HailMorse Bluff-no account filed
June 2001HailMorse Bluff-no account filed
June 1999HailMorse Bluff-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Saunders County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Rescue (historical)8.2 miles11
Cedar Bluffs8.6 miles12
Prague8.7 miles11
Malmo11.7 miles11
Colon12.6 miles11
Woodcliff16.0 miles16
Weston16.5 miles11
Wahoo17.1 miles12

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Morse BluffAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2044499The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 831431. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.